Updated Map Shows New Baiting and Feeding Rules

Legislative changes to Wisconsin's deer baiting and feeding ban can be viewed through the DNR website to check where things have changed.

DNR Section Chief Tami Ryan says before taking part in upcoming hunting seasons or placing feed for wildlife, hunters and wildlife watchers should be sure to check which counties currently prohibit wildlife baiting and feeding activities.

28 CWD affected areas or counties are affected and none will have the ban lifted this year, including Oneida, Vilas, Forest and Oconto counties, where CWD positive deer were detected on game farms. But 15 counties, mainly in eastern and northwestern Wisconsin, have had their bans lifted says Ryan.

She says because no new detections have been found in those areas...

"....a primary example of that would be the northwestern portion of the state where we previously had a four county zone where baiting and feeding was prohibited for deer due to a detection in Washburn county of a wild deer outside of Shell Lake. Because we haven't detected any additional positives and once this new amendment went into the baiting and feeding legislation, that has been lifted...."

In August, Governor Walker signed a bill limiting the ban in infected counties to 36 months and in neighboring counties to 24 months. If another deer tests positive during that span, the clock would restart.

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The scope of Chronic Wasting Disease among mainly white-tailed deer was the focus of a forum last week in Mole Lake.

The forum was sponsored by the Mole Lake Sokaogon Chippewa Community. A presenter was DNR Wildlife Management Bureau Director Eric Lobner. He outlined the disease spread since it was first discovered in southwestern Wisconsin 15 years ago. He says they've collected more than 200,000 samples in that time. He says the vast majority of the positive samples have been in southern Wisconsin with five samples testing positive in central and with one in Washburn county.

Chronic Wasting Disease is a major threat to Wisconsin's deer herd. Within the last two years it was discovered for the first time in this area. It has confounded researchers looking for a way to deal with it.

Prions are abnormal, pathogenic agents that are transmissible and are able to induce abnormal folding of specific normal cellular proteins called prion proteins that are found most abundantly in the brain. Unlike bacteria, for example, prions don't have the stuff that medicine can attack to cure.